Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Jim Gailloreto Jazz String Quintet - The Pythiad
by Daniel Kepl, Performing Arts Review
Gailloreto's refreshingly original jazz suite imagines gods and heroes getting their beads read by the Oracle of Delphi
Chicago-based composer and jazz saxophonist Jim Gailloreto hit on the idea for his latest CD during a gig at the Getty Villa in Santa Monica a few years back. The Villa is itself a replica of an ancient Roman country house. Statues of gods, emperors, statesmen and heroes haunt the place, conjuring a time of... read more
Hal Galper - Trip the Light Fantastic
by Johan Powell, 17 Dots, emusic blog
Jazz piano vet and highly regarded educator, Hal Galper offers another solid recording to his lengthy discography. Galper has a very identifiable sound, not sure I can adequately compare him to anyone. The way in which he strings notes together, it always leaves me with the impression of falling down a flight of stairs without ever leaving my feet? a controlled cohesive randomness that's just a wee bit dangerous and could prove fatal. With Jeff... read more
Anthony Branker & Imagine - What Place Can Be for Us?
by Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
Dr. Anthony Branker is quite an accomplished person with a list of achievements that would fill this page. I spoke to him in 2017 at the time Origin Records released "Beauty Within", his seventh album of original compositions (and six issued by the Seattle, WA-based label). At that time, he had recently stepped down as the head (and founder) of the Jazz Studies Program at Princeton--he currently is Adjunct Professor at the Mason Gross School... read more
Walt Blanton / Tony Branco / John Nasshan - Monuments
by John Barron, All About Jazz
The notion of forming a group with the intention of playing completely improvised music is something that Las Vegas trumpeter Walt Blanton says has always fascinated him. While the concept of performing free-form jazz is nothing new, it is a bold move for an artist, like Blanton, not usually associated with the genre.
After experimenting with sounds and concepts for about a year, Blanton, along with pianist Tony Branco and drummer John... read more
James Moody - 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005
by Marilyn Lester, The New York City Jazz Record
Twenty years ago, James Moody celebrated his 80th birthday with a roster of all-star guest artists at the Blue Note in a concert that has now been immortalized in 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note. Throughout his career Moody played with the elites of jazz and had an unexpected 1952 hit in "Moody's Mood for Love", written by singer Eddie Jefferson (and originally recorded with lyrics by King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie), based on an... read more
Joel Miller - Swim
by David Franklin, Cadence
Since 2001, the Canadian tenorist Joel Miller has released six recordings under his own name, the 2011 Swim being the latest. On this album, as on earlier ones, Miller shows himself to be an extraordinary saxophonist able to execute the most difficult technical passages with apparent ease. But he employs his technique not for show but in the service of a well-developed, creative melodic sensibility enhanced by an attractive Mintzer/ Brecker-like... read more
Emi Meyer - Monochrome
by Bobby Reed, Downbeat
With her U.S. debut, Monochrome, singer-songwriter Emi Meyer has crafted a gem that will greatly expand her international fan base. Born in Kyoto to a Japanese mother and an American father, the Tokyo-based Meyer has released several albums in Japan, and her music has appeared on the soundtrack to Japanese director Nobuhiro Doi's film Flying Colors and in the States on the TV shows Awkward and Younger. Though Meyer has often sung... read more
Bill Anschell - Figments
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
One of the more prolific exponents of the Northwest jazz sound, pianist Bill Anschell has figured in any number of excellent recordings, both as a bandleader and as an accompanist. In Figments, he takes a turn at solo piano, running through songs from pop, jazz, and the American songbook and reworking them into wandering (he describes it as stream of consciousness) arrangements that sometimes provide jazz underpinnings for classic pop, and... read more
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